Harris County DA Charles A. Rosenthal Jr. made a public apology on Friday for exchanging intimate e-mail with his executive secretary, after his messages were made public earlier this week by a federal court.

"I understand that I have said some things that have caused pain and difficulty for my family, my coworkers and friends," Rosenthal said in his statement. “This event has served as a wake-up call to me to get my house in order both literally and figuratively.”

Rosenthal is currently involved in a federal civil rights lawsuit, in which two brothers, Erik Adam Ibarra and Sean Carlos Ibarra, accuse Rosenthal of trying to cover for the sheriff’s deputies that have been captured on camera by the Ibarra brothers while abusing a family during a search warrant execution.

According to their lawyer, Lloyd E. Kelly, Rosenthal has deleted most of his e-mail messages, over 2,500 of them, instead of presenting them as evidence to the lawsuit.

The district attorney gets to be once more in the public eye, as the love scandal broke out. The ‘inappropriate conduct’ as it has been called by his opponents refers to messages sent by Rosenthal to his secretary, Kerry Stevens, a woman with whom he admitted to have had an affair with during his first marriage.

As a response to his private e-mail messages being made public, Rosenthal answered by issuing a public statement in which he apologizes to his family, friends and colleagues: “I understand that I have said some things that have caused pain and difficulty for my family, my coworkers and friends. I deeply regret having said those things. Moreover, I am sorry for the problems I have caused anyone."

 The private e-mails may not break any county law, but the Ibarra brothers’ lawyer think that their existence might one of the reasons for the district attorney to cover for the sheriff deputies. Rosenthal argues that releasing the e-mail to the public is nothing but a political move meant to damage his reputation.